US Army equipping soldiers with fleet of bird-like drones (VIDEO)

An urgent request made by United States soldiers in combat has prompted the Pentagon to place an order for three-dozen, state-of-the-art micro-drones that resemble birds and can be launched by hand.

Prioria Robotics of Florida announced earlier this month that the
US Army Rapid Equipping Force, or REF, awarded them $4.5 million
in federal contracts to deliver to the Department of Defense 36
models of the company’s Maveric unmanned aerial vehicle by
December.

Each Maveric can soar through the sky at speeds up to 55 knots
and has the ability to offer soldiers an array of advantageous
features, but perhaps most interesting about the tiny drone is
its size and shape: each aircraft weighs roughly two-and-a-half
pounds, and according to the Army News Service, the Maveric’s
flexible wings help enable the UAV to blend into its
surroundings.

REF project manager Tami Johnson told Army News Service that the
Pentagon’s request “called for a small, subtle capability that
could be employed by a single soldier,” the likes of which
are expected to come courtesy of a fleet of Maverics expected to
soon by ready to soar.

Allen McDuffee at Wired’s Danger Room noted this week that the
units that compose the Army’s current arsenal of drones are easy
to spot, and ergo easy to target. The solution, it would seem, is
to abandon the more militaristic look associated with UAVs and,
well, “make them look like birds,” McDuffee wrote.

“There was a Special Operations requirement for a plane that
had a natural, biological look — it wasn’t supposed to look
DoD-ish,” Derek Lyons, the vice president of sales and
business development at Prioria, recently explained to
Flightglobal.

Danger Room’s McDuffee described the Army’s newest acquisition as
resembling “a raptor in flight,” but unlike its
prehistoric predecessor, the Maveric at this time isn’t expected
to do any physical damage to the enemies it may encounter in
battle. In a statement from Prioria, the Gainesville, Florida
company said its product was approved by the Army because it is
“usable in the most rugged conditions and equipped with the
largest number of payload options of any hand-launched”
unmanned aerial systems, including the ability to capture images
in a variety of environments. The Maveric also will be able to
carry other custom payloads for its operating team, but specifics
with regards to what have not been released.

According to reporters at Prioria’s hometown paper, the
Gainesville Sun, each Maveric comes equipped to conduct
intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance, with
perhaps room for more to come.

“As the REF procures emerging capabilities to meet urgent
Soldier requirements, we are often inserting technologies for the
first time and assessing operational performance,” Johnson,
the project manager, added in a statement. “It demonstrates
our ability to validate a unique requirement, canvass emerging
commercial-off-the-shelf and government-off-the-shelf
technologies, and partner with other Army organizations to
quickly place capabilities into the hands of soldiers.”

"It is our goal to support the warfighter," said Bryan da
Frota, Prioria's chief executive officer. "We believe as the
mission changes and evolves, Maveric UAS will become an
instrumental component to meeting these missions."

Prioria was awarded the Army contract earlier this year, but
could not immediately make public news about the deal. The
Pentagon has since conducted through testing on the aircraft and
it has been completely certified by the Army Test and Evaluation
Command. The aircraft is expected to be used as early as this
December, but other drones produced by Prioria have previously
been purchased by the Pentagon.

"It achieved its mission," da Frota told a CBS affiliate
of the drones that his company has already supplied to the DoD.
"They found the bad guys and saved lives. So we're proud of
those accomplishments."

In addition to the 36 micro-drones ordered, Prioria will also be
supplying the Army with a dozen ground control stations. Each
Maveric itself is valued at between $100,000 and $200,000,
according to the CBS station.